Winning Ticket Bought by a Saudi prince for nearly $1 million and pointed toward Kentucky just three weeks ago, 20-1 shot War Emblem outran the field from box to wire to take the Derby

Here was a fairy tale on fast forward, a Kentucky Derby dreamconceived and delivered in just 23 days. Lifetimes can be spentin futile pursuit of the May roses, yet this was satisfaction atlight speed. It was the product of a cash transaction between awealthy Arab prince in desperate need of a fast horse and anoctogenarian Chicago businessman in equally desperate need ofmoney to pump up his flagging enterprises. Supply and demand.Somewhere the Derby gods are crowing at their own capriciousness.

Last Saturday afternoon, beneath the twin spires of ChurchillDowns, a swift, cantankerous 3-year-old colt named War Emblemstole the 128th running of the Derby with the race's firstwire-to-wire win in 14 years. It was a victory flush withsignificance. Saudi prince Ahmed bin Salman of the ThoroughbredCorporation became the first Arab to own a Derby winner, thusfinishing first in the high-stakes race within a race againstGodolphin Racing of Dubai, which has spent hundreds of millionsof dollars chasing the same goal. "I am proud to be the firstArab," said Prince Ahmed as he was hustled through the crowds bya small battery of bodyguards. Cultures clashed endearingly asKentuckians thrust souvenir mint julep glasses at Prince Ahmedfor his signature and shouted their approval. Congratulations,Preee-unce!

The Derby victory was the third for trainer Bob Baffert, makinghim just the sixth man in history to complete the hat trick. Itwas no ordinary win, even by this race's elevated standards.Baffert, who won in 1997 with Silver Charm and in '98 with RealQuiet, spent this Derby week in a defensive crouch. First, hesheepishly went about validating the presence in his Churchillbarn of a long-shot colt he had never laid eyes on until theprince bought him for nearly a million dollars on April 11. Thenhe was assailed by the media when his entry of a second coltbumped another, possibly stronger, contender from the field of 20at the last minute. In a final twist War Emblem went off at 20-1odds on Saturday, just one year after the brilliant Point Given,also owned by the Thoroughbred Corporation and trained byBaffert, had gone off as the 2-1 favorite--only to finish fifth.(Point Given went on to win the Preakness and the Belmont.) "Whogets lucky and has that great horse land in his lap?" he had saidtwo days before the Derby.

As it turns out, that was Baffert.

This surreal story began in early April, on a cool, smoggyCalifornia morning. Three days before the Santa Anita Derby, thetop West Coast prep, Baffert stood on concrete grandstand risersat Santa Anita Park. "You've seen the movie Panic Room?" heasked. "I've got my own panic room. Four weeks before the Derbywe're panicking, trying to find a Derby horse." That weekend, hewould run Danthebluegrassman, who seemed to be his last hope."Right now is a good time to sell a horse if you've got amediocre 3-year-old," Baffert continued that morning. "Day afterthe Derby you won't be able to find a buyer. Right now peoplehave money and they're looking to buy. It's like Super MarchMadness in April."

Danthebluegrassman finished last in the Santa Anita Derby, butthat was not the most significant event in Baffert's universe onApril 6. Just before that race he stood in the Santa Anitapaddock and watched on a television monitor as War Emblem gotloose on the lead in the Illinois Derby and crushed Repent, atthe time one of the favorites for the Kentucky Derby. Baffertwasn't the only one watching: Prince Ahmed gets ESPN at home inRiyadh and also saw the race. On Sunday two calls were made: oneby Baffert to the Daily Racing Form to ask what Beyer SpeedFigure War Emblem had earned in Illinois (it was a freakishlyhigh 112) and the other by Prince Ahmed to Richard Mulhall, aformer trainer who's now the Thoroughbred Corporation'sCalifornia-based racing manager. "I saw that race, and I wantedto know if we could buy this horse," said Prince Ahmed. Mulhallthen contacted Baffert, who in turn contacted Don Brauer, abloodstock agent in south Florida.

It was not the first time this spring that Baffert and Brauer hadtalked about buying a 3-year-old. "I've known Bob for 14 years,"says Brauer. "We had been having discussions once a week or so,evaluating the various prep races." War Emblem was owned by84-year-old Chicago steel executive Russell Reineman, with whomBrauer had previously done business, so Brauer called with aquestion: Was the horse for sale?

For some, the decision might have been excruciating. After all,War Emblem's Illinois Derby performance was good enough to earnhim a trip to Louisville, though after the race both Reineman andtrainer Bobby Springer had said publicly that they were in favorof skipping the Derby. "To tell you the truth," Springer saysnow, "I started thinking about the Kentucky Derby right after theIllinois Derby." Reineman has been in the racing game since 1950and been to the Derby once, when Wise Times finished ninth in1986. This could be his last chance.

There were other urgent issues. Reineman still rises at 5 a.m.and goes to work every day. His wife, Marion, died 28 years ago,and business is his passion, although in recent years hiscompany--Crown Steel Sales, Inc. in Chicago--has struggled. "Mysteel company is losing money," says Reineman. "My horse businesshas lost money for the last two years. It's never easy to sell ahorse, but in life you sometimes make tough decisions foreconomic reasons."

Four days after the Illinois Derby, Baffert and Mulhall watchedWar Emblem work out in Lexington, Ky. Springer told them that thecolt had bone chips in both ankles and possibly his left knee andthat he feared each workout might be his last. Undeterred,Baffert didn't even have the colt examined by a veterinarian. "Ididn't want to know," he says. It was agreed that day that theThoroughbred Corporation would buy 90% of War Emblem for$900,000; Reineman kept 10%. The deal was completed on April 11,and Baffert began pointing War Emblem toward the Derby.

What did the prince's money buy? "An ambitious, ornery colt,"says Springer. "A colt who likes to mess with you. Some days youput the bridle on him, he won't do a thing." But he can run.Baffert saw that. "He's a little mean, but he's got a long,beautiful stride," Baffert said before the Derby. "Plus he'ssmart and tough. Only problem is, he's the first Derby horse I'vehad that's a little one-dimensional." (Meaning: He's a naturalfront-runner, which can be deadly in the Derby but bodes well forthe May 18 Preakness, where Pimlico's shorter distance andtighter turns favor horses on the lead.)

Until his late entry of Danthebluegrassman embroiled him incontroversy, Baffert found little audience for his bons mots.There were other stories to tell. Over in Barn 10 local boy KennyMcPeek had favorite Harlan's Holiday, a broken foot and a wifewho had beaten cancer. At Barn 45, where the Godolphin horsesreside behind awnings that are always pulled low, Essence ofDubai would emerge each morning attended by a phalanx of handlersin blue windbreakers. Eighty miles away at Keeneland, Breeders'Cup Juvenile champion Johannesburg and Castle Gandolfo, bothshipped in from Ireland, were still shrouded in secrecy.

The Derby was far less complicated. Ridden by Victor Espinoza,War Emblem was in front from the gate and allowed to leadthrough leisurely fractions of 23 1/5 seconds and 47 flat."Forty-seven is pretty soft for good horses," said jockey JerryBailey, aboard Castle Gandolfo, who would finish 12th.

The slow pace compromised the race's closers, but none firedanyway. War Emblem opened up in the stretch--"When I saw him atthe top of the lane," Baffert said later, "it was like I had hadhim all the time"--and cruised home four lengths ahead of ProudCitizen, who was brought to Kentucky by D. Wayne Lukas, anothercelebrity trainer with seemingly no shot. The Baffert-Lukasexacta paid a startling $1,300.80. Prince Ahmed said he did notbet on his horse, but his score was nonetheless huge. U.S.horsemen have grown accustomed to seeing foreign horses winBreeders' Cup races but have taken solace in the invaders'inability to win the Derby.

For two decades Arab interests (led first by Godolphin and joinedin 1994 by the Thoroughbred Corporation) have aggressively boughtyoung horses, focusing recently on preparing them for the Derby.This breakthrough came by different means--a bold, expensive playless than a month from the race. "Almost every year I've been inthe business, I've had people try to buy horses from me for theDerby," says Bob Lewis, owner of Derby winners Silver Charm in'97 and Charismatic in '99. "And I've sold several. Thedifference in this case is that the horse won. That neverhappened with any of the horses I sold."

Credit Baffert for quickly adjusting to a rancorous horse andgetting him ready. Give Springer an assist. "I knew he had therace won before they got to the first turn," said Springer, whowatched the Derby in Chicago. "Once they let him loose, it wasover." To reward Springer for his substantial role in WarEmblem's preparation, Baffert will give him half of his 10% shareof the $1 million bonus for winning both the Illinois andKentucky derbies, a cut of $50,000. What will happen to the restof the bonus was less clear as, on Monday, Reineman seemed readyto stake a claim to as much as half of it. Two days earlier,however, after watching the Kentucky Derby for the first time viaa televised replay at 9 p.m. in Chicago, Reineman had soundedphilosophical. "I won the Derby today," he said. "At least I won10 percent of it. As for the rest, you can't change what you haveto do."

Three hundred miles away Baffert and Prince Ahmed stepped onto astage in the Kentucky Derby Museum, a building that exists ashomage to America's most important horse race. They had taken thepath not usually run to get here. "Other years I raised horses towin the Kentucky Derby," the prince had said earlier, breakinginto laughter. "This is different. This is the easy way." The menembraced, and applause washed over them. The easy way countstoo.

COLOR PHOTO: COVER INSET BY BILL FRAKES COVER INSET How to buy a KENTUCKY DERBY WINNERCOLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPHS BY BILL FRAKES Get up, stand up Espinoza and War Emblem set a modest pace, then easily held off second-place Proud Citizen (13) and third-place Perfect Drift (3).COLOR PHOTO: JOHN IACONO Hat tricks War Emblem gave Baffert (holding trophy) his third Derby and Prince Ahmed the first for an Arab nation while, as always, fashionistas ruled supreme.TWO COLOR PHOTOS: PHOTOGRAPHS BY BILL FRAKES [See caption above]

Baffert spent Derby week defending the presence in his barn of acolt he hadn't laid eyes on until April 11.